I've convinced my dad to let me build a media centre PC, thing is I don't really know what to get for it. He's looking to spend £400-500 ($772.15-965.19). It also has to be micro-atx. If you're looking up parts use aria or overclockers UK. I was thinking something along the lines of: C2D e6300 1GB RAM 250GB HDD Dual TV Tuners All help appreciated P.S. my TV only has composite (yellow) and other two audio connectors (red and white). So how will I connect it up to the TV?
lol, not sure on the parts but media centre only needs to be connected to a cable outlet for the tv to work you dont need the av cords and such...idk if im making any sense but hope i helped
the point of this media center would be to be very quiet, run reasonably fast and to run video very well. correct? if that's the case an e6300 would probably be fine, but do undervolt it. The chip should be able to run stably at 1.0V or less at stock speeds if you have any luck. you're on the right track. few thigns to ask... would it be acceptable for one of those tuners to be ona PCI slot? if so you can save on the motherboard a bit. Either that or get an external one. This doesn't need to be an extreme performance system, it just needs to be reliable, quiet and competant. Case, what are you going for, i'm assuming small. video cards, how powerful do they need to be? RAM - do you think 1GB would be enough? Chances are it would, but you cna never be too careful. Also note that you dont' ened the highest performance RAM, just good enough. RAM performance plays a relatively small role in system performance.
£400-500 might not be enough: generally media PCs are quite high end. Anyway, here's a good TV-Tuner that will only take up one PCI-e: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=GX-000-TT This might be your best bet on the motherboard - there wasn't a lot to choose from: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=MB-176-AS Processor: (Actually out of stock at Overclockers at the moment, but you can always get it from aria or whatever). http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=CP-135-IN RAM: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=MY-081-CR That's £380 already... without graphics, case, PSU, cooling and other things.
an AMD ststem might very well be cheaper. Not only are AMD CPUs cheaper, but their motherbaords are too.
But then again, if your dad is going to be doing lots of video editing etc on his media box, then he'll want some decent specs. In addition, the issue of noise generation would lead you to lean towards a core 2 duo. It's a fine balance. Ask your dad what he thinks about it - he is paying for it after all. ^_^
He's not going to be doing much video editing. It's going to be used as a DVR basically. Also, I'm paying for half of it, because I'm the one who really wants it
